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January 11, 1999

Suspect in hit-and-run out on bond

By ROSIE FLORESStaff WriterA Pecos woman indicted Thursday by Reeves County grand jurors is out
on bond after turning herself in this past weekend.

Rebecca Ann Campos, 33, who is charged with failure to stop and render
aid to Jesus Olivas Ortiz on Dec. 20, 1998, after her vehicle struck the
victim on U.S. Highway 285 (North Cedar Street), turned herself in Saturday.

Campos failed to give her name, address, vehicle registration number
and name of her liability insurance carrier to anyone, and did not assist
Ortiz, who was in need of medical treatment, the indictment alleges.

Campos' bond was set at $5,000.

A passing motorist found Ortiz lying in the northbound land of U.S.
Highway 285 just north of the railroad tracks just after 2 a.m. He stopped
and protected the victim while police and an ambulance were summoned.

Ortiz, 57, was suffering from a head wound, but also showed evidence
of having been beaten before he was stuck by the vehicle, said Freddy Contreras,
who investigated the accident.

The incident is still under investigation, according to the police investigator.

Times set for annual livestock show

By PEGGY McCRACKENStaff WriterSheep, goats and hogs lead off the weigh-in at the Reeves County Civic
Center Thursday for the annual Reeves-Loving County Junior Livestock Show
and Sale.

Steers will weigh in at the 4-H complex, said Rickey Exum, show superintendent.

Both starting at 4:30 p.m., the steer weigh-in will close at 5:45 p.m.,
and the sheep, goat and hog weigh-in will continue until 7 p.m.

Goats are the first to be shown in the civic center, beginning Friday
at 4:30 p.m., followed by steers at 5:30 and lambs at 6:30.

Saturday is hog show day, with the first class entering the ring at
8:30 a.m. After the show, a barbecue will be offered at $5 per adult plate
from 5 to 6:45 p.m.

Then the premium sale begins in the civic center at 7 p.m., with Dallas
Upton as auctioneer, courtesy of Lovington Livestock.

With 109 4-H and FFA members showing 286 animals, the show promises
to be one of the best.

Steve Armstrong will announce the show, and judges are Chad Thomas of
San Angelo, goat and lamb; Greg Jones of Levelland, steer; and Geoff Cooper
of Denver City, hog.

Hugh and Gail Box, with Herb Stewart & Company, will prepare the
barbecue. They also offer homemade cobblers for dessert. Children 10 and
under may eat for $3 each.

Sale chairman Ray Owen has asked that anyone who has not been asked
to buy an animal or to contribute to a pool to help buy an animal to talk
with any livestock committee member.

"Every dollar you pledge helps support the animal projects of these
young people," Owen said. "We take pledges of any amount."

Last year, the sale was able to purchase animals for 80 youth. Security
State Bank paid the top price of $2,200 for Courtney Clark's grand champion
steer. The sale total was $53,000.

Bailey Wheeless and Rick Bracy of Pecos, and Bob Bagley of Balmorhea,
are FFA advisors. C.W. Roberts is 4-H adviser.

Show moves up action on Building A repairs

A registered engineer/architect for design and construction of administrative
services for roof replacement for the Pecos High School Building A will
be the topic of discussion at the regular Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD board
meeting scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday in the school board's meeting room
at 1304 S. Park St.

"The reason we're having the school board meeting on a Tuesday instead
of Thursday like we usually do is so those individuals that are involved
in the (Reeves County) stock show can participate in it, without missing
the regular meeting," said P-B-T ISD Superintendent Don Love.

Board members will discuss a renewal agreement for West Texas Food Service
Cooperative and discuss and approve a request for use of PHS gyms for the
Reeves County Explorers' basketball tournament which will be held this
Friday and Saturday, along with waiving of the fees.

Under correspondence board members will discuss a donation by Pecos
Swim Team Booster Club.

The group will also meet behind closed doors in executive session to
discuss personnel, extending Superintendent Don Love's contract and discuss
hiring a principal for Pecos Kindergarten.

Andrews continues push to get N-waste dump

By CHRIS NEWTONAssociated Press WriterANDREWS — If Andrews officials have their way, somewhere among the
tumbleweeds and cactus about 35 miles west of the city, giant pits will
be dug in the wide-open spaces to house nuclear waste permanently.

Local resistance to the plan to bring low-level radioactive waste into
the city's back yard has been minimal. Instead, businessmen and local folks
talk about the need for Andrews County to diversify its economic portfolio
with industries not associated with agriculture or oil.

Andrews isn't alone. Haskell County, near Abilene, also has expressed
interest in the project.

In West Texas, nuclear waste has never been so popular.

"There's nothing really out here that will be harmed by it and I'm sure
it will be safe," said John Lincoln, who lives about 20 miles from the
proposed Andrews site. "Anyway, it will be good business for the town so
I'm for it."

While some worry that the dump could harm the Ogalalla Aquifer and the
health of West Texans, officials are wooing the waste business, eager to
gain its economic rewards.

"This type of stabilizing factor to our economy is the kind of thing
we're looking for," said Lloyd Eisenrich, president of the Andrews Industrial
Foundation. "We estimate about 40 full-time jobs associated with the site.
It also opens other doorways for researchers and other businesses."

The Industrial Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to diversifying
and improving Andrews' economy, estimates that the county could reap a
$1 million annual economic impact from the dump, which would be located
on the Texas-New Mexico state line, six miles east of Eunice, N.M.

In Haskell, about 175 miles northeast of Andrews, Mayor Ken Lane says
his office has inquired about the dump but has not decided if it will pursue
the site.

"We asked a few questions and are in the preliminary stages of looking
at it," Lane said.

Securing the dump would likely be an arduous and controversial process.
First, Texas legislators would have to pass a law permitting the state
to consider a site other than Sierra Blanca, a town 90 miles east of El
Paso and less than 20 miles from the Rio Grande.

Capping a process that took nearly two decades, the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission vetoed Sierra Blanca as a storage site in December.
TNRCC Chairman Barry McBee and other commissioners were concerned that
the state's waste disposal authority, charged with finding potential sites
for nuclear waste dumps, didn't thoroughly investigate a geologic fault
line there. Any future site would have to get the nod from the commission.

The commission's decision has a couple of other companies scrambling
to gain approval elsewhere. Envirocare of Texas and Waste Control Specialists
have developed plans to operate a facility in Andrews County that would
be overseen by the state.

Envirocare has bought nearly 900 acres in the county where a dump could
be built and WCS, controlled by Texas millionaire Harold Simmons, already
operates a hazardous waste facility in Andrews County that could serve
as the dump site.

WCS spokesman Ron Hans said the company has pressed its message with
county residents. "We're willing to go to the nth degree to make people
feel comfortable with what were doing," Hans said.

Envirocare says it has more experience in radioactive waste disposal
than its competitor.

"We've been in the radioactive waste for over 10 years and we've disposed
of tens of millions of pounds of radioactive waste," said Charles Judd,
vice president of Envirocare of Texas. "We also have obtained several licenses
to dispose of low-level waste over the past 10 years."

Texas Rep. Gary Walker, R-Plains, plans to submit a bill allowing the
state to consider a dump in Andrews.

"WCS came in there five or six years ago and did a first-class educational
program for the people in Andrews that showed what a benefit their people
had as far as a waste plant was concerned," Walker said. "The people are
for this. The disposal site will be for low-level radioactive waste — hospital
waste and things of that nature — not stuff that glows in the dark."

Opponents contend that hospital waste would account for only 35 percent
of the material dumped. The overwhelming majority of low-level radioactive
waste generated in the United States comes from decommissioned nuclear
power plants and other industrial usage, they say.

Ready to battle both companies and any Texas counties that try to create
a dump is Richard Boren, president of Southwest Toxic Watch, an organization
comprised of many of the same people who ferociously fought the Sierra
Blanca project.

Boren says Andrews officials should think beyond their pocketbooks.

"Andrews is similar to Sierra Blanca in that the people are going to
be dumped on and it is their political leaders that are selling them out,"
Boren said. "There hasn't been local opposition because once you get the
leadership of an area to come out in support, people become afraid to speak
out."

For Boren, the problem with putting the dump in Andrews is that the
Ogalalla Aquifer lies beneath a large part of the county. The huge reservoir
stretches across four states.

"The reason the state didn't select Andrews originally was because of
the aquifer. So what has changed now?" Boren asked.

Much of the waste that would be disposed at a Texas dump would be shipped
from Maine and Vermont. Each state would pay Texas a one-time flat fee
of $25 million, plus $1.25 million to the host county, for the right to
store waste here.

Boren and his contemporaries say the Northern states are simply bowing
to pressure to get rid of the waste and the liability that goes along with
storing it.

"This is just a way for those people to wash their hands of this stuff
and let the Texas taxpayers take care of it," Boren said.

Walker complains that the dump opponents don't even live in Andrews.

"You won't find any serious local opposition," Walker said. "People
hear know that it can be safe and it's good business."

Ex-PHS teacher caught in Rebel flag flap

MIDLAND (AP) _ A high school principal has censored a student editorial
approved by a former Pecos High School teacher which opposed the waving
of the Confederate flag at football games.

The editorial apparently took an unpopular stance at a school where
the football team is known as the Rebels, and the newspaper in which it
would have appeared is called the Dixie Dispatch.

The principal said he killed the editorial to avoid disrupting the school.

Adam Martinez, a junior at Lee High School, said waving the flag at
his school's football games irritated him, so he wrote an editorial for
his journalism class.

"The purpose of this article wasn't to stir up any revolt or controversy,
but I think it is an issue that needs to be dealt with," Martinez told
the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

The editor of the school newspaper, senior Emily Baker, and Martinez's
teacher, John Briggs, approved the editorial.

"I thought that it was reasoned and obviously thought-out and made a
strong point," said Briggs. "Perhaps, in retrospect, I should have thought
that it might stir up more than an ordinate level of response."

Briggs, who was the teacher in charge of supervising the Eagle Echo,
the Pecos High School yearbook, during the 1980s before moving to Midland,
sent the editorial to principal George Cooper, whose approval is usually
routine. The day before publication, Cooper gave the paper back to Briggs,
with an order to delete the editorial.

In place of the editorial, the newspaper ran a picture of a punch bowl
with the message, "Happy Holidays from the Dixie Dispatch staff."

Cooper said he cut the article to protect the students.

"Any of the decisions that I make are related to the potential for disruption
to the educational process," he said. "I felt like the article that was
written had that potential."

Cooper also said the issue has been resolved. In October 1990, an Associated
Press story cited Lee High as a school where Confederate symbols were drawing
complaints. In 1991, trustees of the Midland Independent School District
voted to stop using the Rebel flag as an official school spirit symbol.

Since then, the school has not allowed the flag to be displayed in the
halls or school-sponsored publications, and Cooper said he will continue
to enforce that policy.

"It was not a positive issue for our school or our community at that
time," Cooper said. "There was not any real reason to resurrect that."

Martinez said that although he does not question Cooper's authority
to make the decision, he does question his rationale.

"For the principal to turn a blind eye by saying it's a dead issue is
incorrect," he said.

Briggs, the journalism teacher, said he did not question Cooper when
he learned the article was to be cut.

"I do know that Mr. Cooper and I see the concept of journalism somewhat
differently," he said.

Obituary

Morgan Gordon

Morgan "Sonny" Gordon, 69, of Pecos, and formerly of Alpine, died Monday,
Jan. 4, 1999 at his residence.

A rosary was held at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 7, at Our Lady of Peace.
Mass was at 10 a.m., Friday with burial in Holy Angels Cemetery with Father
Rick Ruiz officiating.

Gordon was born April 11, 1929, in Alpine and made the military his
career. After leaving the Amry, he returned to Alpine then moved to Pecos
in 1988. He was a member of the Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus and
the VFW.

Survivors include two sons, Morgan Gordon III and Perry Gordon of Washington;
two daughters, Rita Kemp of Germany and Peggy of California; one brother,
Lewis Gordon of Alpine; four grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.